How to Initialize String Variable in Power Automate

This Power Automate Tutorial will discuss how to initialize a string variable in Power Automate. I will show you how to initialize a string variable to empty in Power Automate. Also, I will see how to reset a string variable in Power Automate, and finally, I will show you how to clear a string variable in Power Automate.

Initialize a String Variable in Power Automate

Let us see how to initialize a String Variable in Power Automate with an example.

I had a requirement to display data from the SharePoint list, which is of String data type. So here, we will initialize the String Variable type and then display the data from the SharePoint list in Power Automate.

So here I have created a SharePoint list called EmployeeList, shown below, consisting of different columns called,

• FirstName
• Last Name
• Employee Code
• Designation

To achieve this, follow the below steps:

• Login into the Power Automate flow, select the + create flow, and click on the Automated cloud flow.
• Enter the flow name and choose the trigger as When an item is created or modified and click on the create option as highlighted below:

• Then, we will add an action to initialize the variable, i.e., initialize the variable.
• Once initialized, we will enter the variable name, choose the string variable type, and add the dynamic content value in the value section.

1. Name– Variable Name (VarName)
2. Type– Variable Data type (String)
3. Value– Add the dynamic content Variable Value (Title, LastName)

Here Title value contains the FirstName value. We have renamed the Title column name to FirstName in the SharePoint List. So, while passing the dynamic content value, we must add the default Site column name, Title, and LastName.

We will add a compose action to get the output from the input of the initialized variable, which consists of the title value and last name.

• Save the flow, select the Test option, then choose Manually, and click Test.
• I have created a new list item in the SharePoint list, as highlighted below so that the Power Automate flow will trigger.

• Once the Power Automate flow has been triggered, we can see the expected output from the SharePoint List as below:

This is how to initialize a String Variable in Power Automate flow with an example.

Power Automate Initializes String Variable – Another Example

Initializing a string variable means creating a string variable and assigning an initial or empty value to it. Here, I have taken a SharePoint List, which consists of different columns of different data types, as shown below.

Column	Data Type
Title -> Employee Name	Single line of text
EMP ID	Single line of text
Employee Joining Date	Date and Time
Employee Email ID	Single line of text

Here, I wanted to send an email to the employee who recently joined the organization. For this, I have created a Power Automate automated cloud flow that gets triggered whenever a new employee detail is added to the SharePoint list.

So, I have added an action (Initialize variable) to initialize a string variable named “EmailContent” with a welcome message. Then, I will add an action (Send an email) and construct the email message by combining the initialized variable with dynamic content. And then add an action (Send an email) to send an email to the new employee.

Let’s see how to initialize the string variable in Power Automate. To achieve this, follow the steps below.

• Navigate to the Power Automate home page and click + Create -> Select the Automated cloud flow under Start from blank.
• Then, provide the flow name and choose the flow’s trigger inside the Build an automated cloud flow tab -> Click on the Create button.

• Once the trigger (when an item is created or modified) is added, enter the required fields such as.
  • Site Address: Provide or select the Site Address you are using.
  • List Name: Select the SharePoint list where you want to implement.
  • Limit Columns by View: Set the limit to the columns by viewing -> Click on + New step.

• Now, add an action (Initialize variable) then enter the values for the required fields.
  • Name: Here, provide the variable name.
  • Type: Select the type of variable based on the example.
  • Value: Enter the value to initialize the string variable. I have entered the value ‘Welcome to Pinnacle Trust Group family! We are excited to have you on board.’ -> Click on + New step.

• Similarly, add an action (Send an email V2). Configure the email by inserting the required value, as shown below.
  • To: Insert the recipient’s email address to whom you want to send an email.
  • Subject: Enter the subject of why you sent this email or what is the purpose of this email.
  • Body: Enter the message about the subject briefly -> Click on the Save button.

• A message is displayed once the flow is saved: “Your flow is ready to go. We recommend you test it” -> Click on Test, then inside the Test flow tab, select Manually. Now click on the Test button -> Open a SharePoint list and add a new employee detail to whom you want to send an email.

• Then a message is displayed that “Your flow ran successfully”. Now you can see the person I have sent the email to received the email containing the Initialized string variable’s value.

This is how to initialize string variables in Power Automate.

Reset A String Variable in Power Automate

Set Variable action is used to create or update a variable within the workflow. Variables are temporary storage containers that allow you to store and manipulate data.

Here, I will use a SharePoint list that consists of different columns of different data types as listed below. To do this, I will combine the Employee Name with the EMP Unique ID to get the Employee User Name in the SharePoint list.

Column	Data Type
Title -> Employee Name	Single line of text
EMP ID	Single line of text
Employee User Name	Single line of text
Employee Joining Date	Date and Time

In this section, I will show you how to ensure each employee gets a unique username when joining the company. To do this, we are going to reset a string variable.

For this, I have created a Power Automate automated cloud flow that gets triggered when an item is created in SharePoint. Then, add an action (Set a Variable) and enter the required fields’ value.

• Name: Select the name from the dropdown, same as the Initialized string variable name.
• Value: I have inserted values by combining two Dynamic content to get the Employee User Name.

After the string variable is reset, add an action Update item to update the Employee User Name using the output of the Set variable action.

Let’s see how to reset the string variable in Power Automate.

• Add an action (Initialize variable) by following the steps from the previous section. Then, provide values for all the required fields, such as.
  • Name: Enter the name for the initialized variable.
  • Type: Select the type for the initialized variable.
  • Value: Select the value for the initialized variable. Here, I have used Dynamic content to insert Employee Name as value (i.e.Title column renamed as Employee Name in SharePoint list). Then click on + New step.

• Similarly, add an action (Set Variable) to reset the EmployeeUserName string variable’s value by combining two Dynamic content values (EMP Unique ID and Title (i.e. Employee Name)). Then click on the Save button as shown below.

• Now add an action Update item in SharePoint using the output of the set variable action and enter the value for the required fields as shown below.
  • Site Address: Here, provide the site address of your SharePoint Site.
  • List Name: Select the SharePoint list where it will be implemented.
  • Id: Provide list item Id. Use this value for specifying the item to act on in other list-related action
  • Title: Select the title of the SharePoint list.
  • Employee User Name: Here, I have used the output of the set variable action to update the SharePoint column using Power Automate automated cloud flow -> Click on the Save button.

• Once the flow gets saved message is displayed “Your flow is ready to go. We recommend you test it”. Then click on Test and inside the Test flow tab, select Manually -> Click on Test -> Then open a SharePoint list and add a new employee detail in the SharePoint list.

• Now you can see a message is displayed: “Your flow ran successfully”. Then click and expand Initialize variable action and Set variable action to see the Initialized variable value and Set variable value as shown below.

• Then open your SharePoint list, and you can see that the SharePoint Employee User Name column gets updated as shown below.

This is how to reset a string variable in Power Automate.

Clear String Variable using Null in Power Automate

In Power Automate, Clear String Variable using Null action is used to reset or clear the value of a string variable to ensure that it contains no text or data.

For this, I am using a SharePoint list consisting of columns of different data types as shown below.

Column	Data Type
Title -> Employee Name	Single line of text
Reason	Multiple lines of text
Start Date	Date and Time
End Date	Date and Time

I wanted to set the variable value to null if the employee mistakenly left the Reason column in the SharePoint list blank. For this, I will create a Power Automate automated cloud flow that gets triggered when an item is created in SharePoint.

Then, add an action (Initialize variable), and initially, the value of the Initialized variable is kept as On hold. Now, add an action (Condition) to check if the Reason column is equal to null. Similarly, add an action (Set variable) and set the other parameter as null to see the Output as null.

Let’s see how to clear a string variable using null in Power Automate. To do this, follow the steps below.

• Go to Build an Automated Cloud Flow using the previous section steps, enter the Flow name, and Choose the flow’s trigger (When an item is created). Once the trigger is added, enter all the required fields as shown below.

• Add an action (Initialize variable) and enter all the fields such as
  • Name: Provide the name of the Initialize variable.
  • Type: Here, select the type of the initialized variable.
  • Value: Enter the value based on your scenario -> Then click on + New step as shown below.

• Then, add an action (Condition) to check if the Reason column in SharePoint is equal to null. If yes then add an action (Set variable) and enter the required fields, such as
  • Name: Provide the same name as the Initialize variable action.
  • Value: Here, I have entered an expression for null -> Then click on the Save button.

null

• Once the flow gets saved, then a message is displayed, “Your flow is ready to go. We recommend you test it” -> Click on Test, and inside the Test flow tab, select Manually -> Click on the Test button.

• Open a SharePoint list and add a new item. Then, you can see the item added to the SharePoint list. The Reason column is left blank as shown below.

• After the item is added to a SharePoint list, you can see a message displayed “Your flow ran successfully”. Then click Condition -> Click on the If yes part to see the output below.

This is how to clear a string variable in Power Automate using null.

Initialize String Variable to empty in Power Automate

Let us see how to initialize a string variable to empty in Power Automate.

In this example, we will create an instant cloud flow to trigger a flow manually and then initialize the variable type string empty.

• Select the + Create flow and click on the Instant cloud flow.
• Enter the flow name, choose the trigger as Manually trigger a flow, and click on the create option as displayed below:

• Once the flow has been created, click the + Add step to add action and initialize the variable in the Power Automate flow.
• Then enter the variable name, choose the variable type as String, and the variable as null value as displayed below:

• Now, we will add another step to add a compose action to get the output from the initialized input variable value.

• In the compose action input value, we cannot change the value assigned to the variable.
• Save and Test the Power Automate flow and Run flow.

The screenshot below shows that the value is empty and the variable type is a string, as expected.

This is how to initialize a String Variable to empty in Power Automate.

Initialize String Variable Array in Power Automate

Here, we will see how to initialize the variable with the string Array type in Power Automate.

In this example, we will initialize the string array to display the first name and last name values in the array format of string data type in the SharePoint list. For example, If it is of string array, then the array looks like [a,b,c..]

Step:1

• Once the Power Automated flow has been created, select an action to initialize the variable with the string data type in an array format as displayed below:
• Enter the name and type of the variable as a string, and in the values field, add the dynamic content values to get values from the SharePoint List.

After initializing the String variable in an array format, add a compose action to retrieve string values in an array data values from the SharePoint list on Power Automate.

• To run the Power Automate flow, select the Test option, choose Manually, and click the Save & Test option.
• Here, I will modify the existing SharePoint list item as shown below so that the Power Automate flow will trigger.

• Once the Power automation flow is triggered and runs, we can see the string values in the array format from the SharePoint list in the compose output section as below:

This is how to initialize the variable with the string Array type in Power Automate.

Conclusion

I hope you got an idea of how to initialize a string variable in Power Automate. In this Power Automate tutorial, we learned the below things:

• How to reset a string variable in Power Automate
• How to clear a string variable using Null in Power Automate
• How to initialize a string array variable in Power Automate
• Initialize a string variable to empty in Power Automate

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